Biggles in de Oriënt (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Biggles is on leave in Tokyo.His friend, R.A.F. pilot Tug Smith is also in Tokyo visiting his fiancee Mioko. Biggles is at a Japanese tea house waiting for his friend when he gets a call. It's from Tug, calling from an inn outside the city. He wants Biggles to come over immediately. Someone has kidnapped Mioko! Commissioner Homado, investigating the case, is puzzled about the motive. Biggles asks Tug if he has told Homado about his volunteering for Operation Malaka. Tug doesn't think it's a likely motive as it is only a UNICEF sponsored operation to drop relief supplies to starving villages in Malaka. Still, Homado thinks it fits because he has found a Malaka coin at the scene of crime. There is a Malaka political refugee named Selang lodging at the Prince-Bekan Hotel at Shinagawa so Homado proceeds there to question him. When they knock at his room door, Selang does not answer but jumps through the window. Biggles had anticipated this and had waited for him in the hotel garden. He intercepts and detains Selang. The Malaka breaks down when Homado threatens to return him to his home country. He offers to talk but just then, a car charges by, shots ring out, and Selang is shot dead! The hotel staff reveal that Selang calls a certain Sumo stable daily and has a ticket to a Sumo wrestling match that night so Homado and Biggles go there next. They note a wrestler named Yosame behaving strangely--he seems distracted and always glances at Selang's empty seat. After the match Homado approaches Yosame. He resists questioning for a long time but finally agrees to talk. He has been ordered by his doctor to stop wrestling but still has heavy gambling debts to pay. Selang had approached him and offered him a large sum of money to use his house as a base for his gang of Malaka political rebels. Mioko is being kept at his house. The motive: they want Tug to quit flying for Operation Malaka. Homado leads a raid on Yosame's house. There, another Malaka, Molog, is guarding Mioko. He doesn't surrender. Instead he threatens to harm Mioko unless they give him a getaway car. Homado plays along and sends the car to the other side of the house. Biggles sneaks in unnoticed to wait for Molog. As he withdraws from the front door and steps into the house again, Biggles attacks and knocks him unconscious. Back at the hotel, Biggles tells Tug and Mioko that the Malaka rebels probably want to disrupt the relief operation in order to embarrass the Malaka government. This was confirmed by Molog who later reveals to the police that all Operation Malaka pilots would be similarly intimidated. Nonetheless, Homado concludes that the Tokyo part of the gang has been completely eliminated. Biggles and Tug say goodbye to Mioko and fly to Hong Kong and then to Dum Dum, Calcutta, the base for Operation Malaka. The commander of the operation, Colonel Browlow welcomes the pilots but warns that it is joyride--the rebels have sent a message saying that they would strongly oppose the relief flights. But how? Do the rebels have fighter aircraft? Nobody knows. Outside the mess hall, Browlow catches a servant Lal Din eavesdropping. But he tells Biggles this man has served reliably for years and can be trusted. The next day, Biggles launches a test flight--Angus Machail (sic), with Conrad White as his copilot, flies a Lockheed C-130 Hercules loaded with relief supplies. Algy and Ginger fly escort in 2 Spitfires. The mission proceeds smoothly and the relief supplies are dropped to some villages which have been cut off by floods. But on the way back to base, the C-130 suddenly nosedives. Angus and Conrad do to respond to Ginger's frantic radio calls, and the large aircraft crashes into the jungle, killing both pilots. On his return Ginger and Algy make their reports. They had seen no opposing aircraft, anti aircraft fire or any explosion. The mechanics also report that the aircraft had been thoroughly checked before flight. Biggles wants to ground the entire squadron for careful inspections before resuming operations but Browlow tells him HQ has instructed that the flying must proceed. So a guard is placed over the aircraft and the mechanics intensify their checks. For the next two missions proceed without incident, but on the third mission, the C-130 piloted by Rex and Tommy nosedives suddenly and crashes, just like Angus and Conrad. Biggles, leading the formation in another C-130, decides to parachute down to inspect the wreckage, telling Tug to send a floatplane to pick him up later from a nearby river. Down at the crash site, Biggles finds no clue--no explosion or bullet holes. Only, the pupils of the dead pilots' eyes look strangely dilated. Two rebel soldiers approach but Biggles manages to surprise them, killing one in an exchange of fire and disarming the second. The rebel tells him he does not know how the aircraft are brought down. They are only told to watch for and check all crash sites. Their orders came from somebody in India. Biggles' questioning of the rebel is interrupted by the approach of a group of rebels. He escapes towards the rivers where, fortunately, a floatplane arrives to pick him up in the nick of time. On returning to Dum Dum, Browlow tells him another C-130, piloted by Ted and Johnny had also crashed, just outside the airfield. Examining the wreckage, Biggles finds nothing, except for a pink coloured wrapper.m Back at the base, Sergeant Gray suddenly runs amok, shooting his pistol at objects around him. Biggles dives at him and floors him and then sends him to the doctor. Browlow tells Biggles that Gray's behaviour is strange--he behaved like a drunk but he doesn't drink. The doctor calls Biggles to the clinic: Gray is dead. While Biggles is puzzling over what might have caused Gray's death, Lal Din comes in to collect a coffee pot. Biggles gets an idea: the doctor confirms that Gray drank the coffee, so Biggles wants the pot examined. Biggles next searches Gray's room and finds another pink wrapper--its for chewing gum. Browlow tells him the chewing gum is donated by English companies and Gray obtains them from the canteen and places them in the lockers of aircraft for the pilots. Biggles decides to try something--he gathers all the canteen staff and makes them all chew chewing gum, but nothing happens. He next tries all the pilots, and again nothing happens. Biggles is stuck. The doctor now tells him he has found traces of poison in the coffee pot which Gray drank from. Perhaps he suspected something and someone needed to silence him. The doctor adds that he thought he had drunk from the same pot but actually it was a different pot which Lal Din had brought in. Biggles realises that he has forgotten all about Lal Din. With Browlow, he searches and finds Lal Din in the storeroom and demands that he chew some gum. Lal Din at first agrees but then produces a gun. There is a scuffle and Lal Din seeks to escape the building but the sentry outside shoots him dead. It is now clear that Lal Din was the one who planted drugged chewing gum in the aircraft but who was he working for? Lal Din has a brother named Tahil, so Biggles, Algy and Ginger go to his house. Again, Tahil resists them at first with a knife but is overpowered. He confesses that his boss is the wealthy trader Larapindi. His wife was a Malaka and she supports the rebellion and hence they sought to disrupt the relief flights. Larapindi lives in a palatial house outside the city with attached warehouses and even a landing strip. He explains to Biggles that because of the vast distances he has to travel, he always keeps a fast aircraft on hand. Biggles' cover story for calling is that he needs a new man to replace Lal Din who is sick. Larapindi is happy to help and his wife begins making calls. After a while, Larapindi excuses himself and then comes back with a gun in hand--his wife has learnt that Lal Din is dead. However Biggles manages to surprise the couple by tipping a desk at them and then escaping out of the room. On hearing Larapindi's gun shots, Algy and Ginger rush to join Biggles and soon there is a pitched battle between our three friends against Larapindi's men who come running into the house. In the midst of the battle, Biggles spots Larapindi running to his aircraft. He has decided to leave his wife in the lurch and escape! Biggles calls Colonel Browlow at Dum Dum to scramble their Spitfires to intercept. Tug Smith is the first to spot Larapindi flying in what appears to be a P-40 Tomahawk. Tug closes in but Larapindi surprises him by pulling up and above him and raking his Spitfire with machine gun fire. Tug is hit but isn't giving up--he executes the same manoeuvre and gets the P-40 into his sights but his guns jam! Undetered, Tug deliberately collides his aircraft into Larapindi's. Tug parachute's to safety but the Indian trader is killed in the resulting crash. That evening, Browlow announces to the pilots in the mess that the entire enemy gang has been destroyed-there should be no further disruption to their relief flights. The operation would resume the next day, but first Biggles asks for a minute's silence to remember their fallen comrades. Category:Plot summaries